A day messing with Gimp and textures

I spent a lot of yesterday playing around with uploading stuff for Gimp.

The tex below was created using some new brushes I uploaded..



I went to DeviantART and joined up, I searched "GIMP Brushes" then downloaded brushes that I liked... this was mostly done with a couple of brushes by MyLastBlkRose, but I used a few...




...then... on to Guicon where I downloaded the Plasti-Wrap Plug in....here. If you need tutorials on how to do that, they are on YouTube..... in fact there are loads of tutorials on using Gimp if you need a bit of further education. There's always new stuff to learn....(same applies to Photoshop)...




Then I spent a little while messing with PlastiWrap and Emboss... I never use bump map in SL (or Iwz) anymore, it is just too crude, I do my "bump mapping" with emboss before I upload, I get a much better effect because I use a larger tex and then reduce to 1024. I seldom use smaller than 1024 anymore, but I often restrict the number of colours to 16 or 12 (posterise) and thereby make it just as fast to upload as a 512 with loads of colours.

Time to do another texture lecture I guess.

:))

The borked dork and Yosemite Sam

Make no mistake I dislike Microsoft baseball caps not the lifeforms who live in them.

Someone just got far too much attention and his performance was kinda embarrassing. I found myself wondering about his life too much...is dork a purely Brit word?

I personally think LL missed a trick when they clamped down on gambling (apart from the fact that I had shares in Las Vegas which became worthless overnight) because my TV is full of adverts for online gambling which is, a year on from the big clamp down, seen as fairly innocuous and mainstream.

...when it comes to sex, well, the porn guys, if they had been given their head (sorry, would have been criminal not to use that) may have fuelled the engine that drives change to a better graphic experience. Personally I believe in making love not war... that might make me a liberal hippy, but rather that than a repressed bigot.

Now the baseball cap has nothing to say on V 2.0 that hasn't already been said by someone far less annoying. I have it on good authority though that the 1.23 is out!
End of September and we'll all be on Emerald or will have packed our bags and fled along with the other refugees to a saner world, yes, InWorldz.
There was, apparently, a conversation with Jack Linden during his Office Hours (wish I worked such short hours)... during which it became obvious to my reporting colleague that by the end of September, Viewer 1.23 would no longer be supported. There are apparently workarounds for those who know how to refile it as 'old viewer'...far beyond me, and ....... why bother. Most of the builders I know use Emerald and Imprudence has been well spoken of too.

Another shot in the arm for IWz? as if they need one...

...Oh, and while I'm here...re.Yosemite Sam.... well, Dusan feels like he should apologise to Philip because he took so much flak for not attending SLCC in person, then it turns out that The Shining Knight is in fact off to play Yosemite Sam with his family.

so... I thought about this... now I've never been a CEO (except once in a two person Company), so I guess a job is just a job and free time is important etc etc....being self-employed myself, I always make sure my free time doesn't interrupt business.....or I'd starve.
But, as usual with these things, my interest is immediately drawn to a basic question...namely...Why oh why, when he has had several opportunities, didn't he mention this before? It goes like this...more or less...on the blog which is now called a wiki..."Philip will be presenting at SLCC via Virtual Media.."BECAUSE HE WILL BE ON HOLIDAY AT THE TIME"..... So...9 words which, altho pressed for time, someone could have typed...none of them being hard words to spell.

...and why...stood on the platform at his not-very-public-meeting did he not say..."hey, guys (in his easy confident inspiring manner) it's a bummer I can't be at SLCC, I'll be with my family on those days"...

In case you think I am making too much of this, ask a psychiatrist about omissions. They are important.

So, I have to have a view on this, yes? Yes.

Community is us, the Boys like to tell us at every step that we are a community, even tho communities can't be built like a good bit of code. Now, if Philip was part of that community he would have mentioned something about holidays and no-one would have done anything but say .." great, bud, have a good one, shoots some of them pesky ground squirrels for me."

But, they are the Corporation. They "sell" ideas to us, they dictate changes and they are the bosses. They don't need to tell us about their holidays, why would they? They don't need to tell people why they get the sack. They don't tell us why they can't get search to work. They don't need anything from us except the money to pay wages and The Vultures.

Machines say to me "your call is important to us" ...(not important enough to employ enough people to answer the phones).. and the Boys say..."we are listening",....duh!!... so are the FBI...that doesn't make it a community. Conversation is a two way process...tell us stuff, explain, blog....anything....we want feed back. That's why so many go to IWz and they show a 30% growth in 6 weeks... WE LIKE TO BELONG, not as possessions, minions and serfs, but as a part of something exciting.

That is why I will not be apologising to Philip for giving him flak.

Tough love...

:)))

more building.....

...hmmm...this might turn out to be an IBM preview, except I can't scale this well in SL....darn....

Maeve popped into Inworldz and we were gonna buy hair but she left for a big apple, outworldz, np....

In other RL news..... "green fingers" = watering your plants before they shrivel up and die...(i.e. common sense)...


:))

Blogger???..... bullshit???

I am not a blogger....or at least I do not consider myself one, and have never set out to be either. I simply mention this in passing as there is some challenge by bloggers for other bloggers and of little interest to anyone who isn't a blogger. I'm more of a bullshit artist really, I just ramble on a bit and people read this stuff because I seem to be on the same wavelength as you/some of you.

758 posts is more of a habit than a conviction, certainly no ambition, tho I was mightily stimulated by Right as Rain when he asked me to take down a post where I had dared to criticise him. He wasn't worried that people would read my "boring little melodrama" more that they might stumble upon it by accident.... hehehehe.... ah well, he was the first but not the last to take offence at my musings....

I am pleased tho that I gave up blogging for koinup, not that I didnt do a few good, and the occasional controversial, post, but I felt the obligation to blog (cos I was getting paid) and that took the fun out of it. I have to really just let my musings take me where they will, be it texture lectures, art, sex, architecture or the psychology of virtual existence... it's just a bit of fun with the occasional thought and the odd rant.

.....and, because I digress so well.... I can flip anywhere I like...like Inworldz.....and the new tree, the biggest tree I have ever made.....see below...





Now, some of you may note a 'more than passing' resemblance to Tree Sisters... yes, they are the same genus...






....and the White Goddess Tree, which won 'best unscripted build' at UWA last month (thanks all) has self seeded all over Inworldz and some have grown to maturity....




....due to the generosity of Mouser (Scotsgraymouser Janus) I should have room to plant a little copse of them at Alchemy Labs...

The above build shows the Library at Tesseract.... Mouser is no slouch when it comes to building herself and she is responsible for getting me interested in Inworldz...

So.....I will keep you all up to date.... Alizarin Goldflake and Wizard Gynoid have visited and rumour has it that Scottius will build there too....interesting times. Theres about 5000 users I think and 5000 reasons for someone who makes hair to come and sell us some...oh, and shoes too....


:))

Politics, stuff and blurb.....

Just a little shot of Nishiland rising from the sea. I uploaded a homemade Raw file and I think its a bit crap but as there was no default setting I have taken it as a challenge to mod onsite with my terraforming tools....so we shall see.....

As you will have gathered by now I am moving hovel in RL so I get a bit less time for this 'boring little melodrama' but I have been reading around to keep up to date with stuff....

"Second Life's New First Hour Experience Not Yet Increasing User Concurrency" is the ground breaking news from NWN...LOL...must be difficult to find stuff to write if you have to blog everyday.... but it's as newsworthy as.."Baby born with two ears!!!" And... please don't think I'm having a go at the Boys, that's like shooting fish in a barrel, it got me thinking...

I have been hearing gripes about new viewers for nearly three years now and, mostly, they have been about stability and bugs. I have never heard so much outright disgust tho for a viewer before from quite 'established' people (not fringe nuts who will have a moan about anything) who are not just complaining about the various bugs or omissions but who generally hate the whole viewer......

...and I was trying to think of another product or service where those designing it have little or no regard for the end user.... and, it being the start of a Crazy Season here in the UK, my mind focussed on politics....(for about 10 seconds).

Spin, a word that has crept into the language about 1990/5, is what we used to call a lie. Lies are what politics and advertisers deal in continually. However, if you lie enough, and often enough, no-one will believe you, so, when it comes time to try and get people to believe in what you are doing......

Now, I'm not saying that the Boys have lied to anyone..... BUT.... if you have little or no regard for your end-user and treat them like 'punters' then there is gonna be a growing credibility gap which will be your 'undoing'.

...which brings me to the question....who was the new viewer designed for??...and.... when is a good time to admit you have made a mistake?? ....and....why do I feel like no-one "in power" gives a damn??

...and....one question I can answer is....Do I give a damn?? Well, not really, no: not about politics or the viewer.

If the viewer gets too bad I shall move...if the politics gets too bad..well....that would be normal, I have come to expect nothing from those lying cads.

Anyway.... [14:41] Alizarin Goldflake: soror - you are a sort of wiseass nymph.

hehhehehehee...

I got that HUD from the virtual looking glass place but then couldn't shift it off my screen....needs some work someone....

Now....Juanita has written some nice things about the show at Treeline ...here. and it would be remiss of me not to remind you that, if you haven't yet been...it closes on Monday...so get your butt over there...:))))

...and...lastly but not leastly...just discovered Nyx's blog... Prim Pushers where he talks building and stuff. Could not agree more on his article about the importance of textures..... well, the guy is amazing....he's gotta have some good advice, you don't win all those competitions without knowing a thing or two.....

:)))

Log in Issues....

Funny how problems and cock-ups are now always called issues....
"Issues" makes it sound like it's a God-Related thing, not the fault of anyone of the Boys...it's just 'like that'...well, good job for them we don't all have payment issues, I guess.

Anyway, someone has cocked-up and won't admit it, so, just like in the old days, I get on my blog and bend your ears, dear reader. I see that a good few of my friends are online, so seems like some of the servers are working, so I may just be moaning unnecessarily, but that never stopped me before...:))

Anyway...at 3.05 PM SLT....they posted the all clear on the status...you know....Issues Resolved..bla, bla, bla.., that sort of thing and timed it as 3:40..... well...Wizzy wondered if they were suddenly all Time Lords...I personally think someone can't even tell the time..so....who knows...new policy???

Well, it would be good PR policy to predict the grid status... I should try that too. I could predict my account balance each month for the Lav.

Anyway...for those of you way behind the news... like me...the big thing this week was the machinima contest at UWA... 215,000 L$ in prize money... not peanuts.... and all three top vids were excellent and the honerable mentions...and...everyone...... Details...here. all three proving how wrong I was to say what I said...:))

Otherwise I have been keeping my head down, bog snorkelling...but all is going well, and Frigg is back so....I have to do some Norwegian things this coming week... all good, keeps me off the streets.

Oh..yes, I'm working on a new tree...but more of that when I finally surface.

Still no luck hacking into my own computer.... :((.... but learning to live with the loss (small)......and the extra work... damned machines... hehehhe...

Keep smiling..!!

:))

Troll etc.

Well, my 423 prim troll is finished and now seen occasionally wandering The Companion. Better photos of it here...or in my Flickr favs....above right.

Frigg Ragu is holding a photo competition for The Companion... (which is in Hot Spots).... L$ 10,000 first prize.

"The Companion Photo Contest
In the folktale/Storytelling sim The Companion there is a laterna magic. For those of you have been there, I am sure you have seen that this one is empty of images/illustrations/photos/pictures. It is waiting for being embraced by the story.

We need pictures, so therefor are you invited to participate in a ”The Companion photo Contest”. Up to 10 pictures will be chosen. These pictures will be shown in the laterna and in a book visitors can bring with them when they leave ”The Companion”."

...so get snapping.... the rules are here






In other news....went to see the build above, China, by aston Leisen, and one of Bettina's picks... I thought the clouds were inspired and the distant mountains done very well. AM used 3 sims to get this feeling of space so it's worth a visit..... here

...otherwise... erm...well, I have been a little slow in blogging this last week, dear reader, but I am starting to prepare for a new show at Pirats. Should open the 5th Jan, if my memory serves me well, which it doesn't......I would go to memory improvement classes but would probably forget which day they were ....as Clement Freud once said.... (more or less..)...."As you get older your memory fails you also as you get older your memory fails you." Not that I have that excuse as it has been terrible all my life, I can't remember most of my childhood, which is probably a blessing..... and I have always made a point of forgetting everyone's name. I need all the spare bioRAM I can muster... no upgrades yet available..... passwords are a nightmare and I have been locked out of more sites than I even care to remember, if I could.

Anyway, it seems like Christmas is happening soon, from the radio and general quantity of snow seen around SL, but I do remember candles melting off the tree in Australia where the Winter Solstice, hijacked by fascist Christians in the North sits unhappily in mid-summer, how surreal is that, really?

It's that time of the year though when religious zealots roam the radio and TV broadcasting their bigoted views with impunity whereas, in the real world (and I use that term relatively) the dusty little donkey, laden with emotive anthropomorphic pathos, wanders into a stall in Bethlehem to be hit by an Israeli anti personnel missile, mistaken for a suspected terrorist..... peace on earth to all (except anyone who disagrees with the current world-view)...

hehehehehe, still as I've said before the great thing about hypocrisy is that you don't have to be consequent; that's a great benefit to those of us who are memory-challenged, and of course, the power crazy.

:))

Sunday stuff

Yesterday saw the opening of the new Flashman's at Esoterica a great dance joint playing music from the 20's, 30's, etc.




The brainchild of Martin Ren, who is, he says, retiring, it attracted over 40 people and the joint was jumpin'. Echo and Phi will take over the management of the place with Martin hopefully coming in occasionally to DJ... Great couple dances for those of you who like to cut a rug...




Skin by Jeanni Nishi...**TOXX**.... freebies eyes by me..

...In other news.... well, seems like UWA made the list of Showcase and got some extra visitors, and The Companion is one of the LL Hotspots...

On Tuesday, Juanita opens the Treeline Galleries.... here.........

" Please join us on Tuesday December 15th at 2 pm for the opening of this important project .
Virtual Treeline is part of a larger real world Treeline project that aims to raise awareness of local and global environmental issues and encourage action through art.
The work on show in our galleries will be shown in real life galleries and schools and on the internet as well as in Second Life.
We are interested in showing artworks, performances, science projects and any builds that relate to the Treeline project.
Please contact Juanita Deharo if you have a project for Virtual Treeline."

I had a sneek preview and saw great pieces by Alizarin Goldflake, Asmita Duranjaya, Fuschia Nightfire, ....didn't see everything but RAG Randt, Sheba Blitz, Bocan Undercroft are also showing and, if you tp down to earth, I have my Chemist Tree there.

I've been troll building all the spare time I have so may have something to show for my efforts next week...

.... if things go well.....

:))

Arty thoughts and stuff

Well, as often happens a couple of comments have had my brain going this weekend... firstly a new friend and customer, seeking to help me get my act together asked me to think strategically about where I was going with my art, and Quad commented on a previous post about copybotting (if indeed that is a verb, seems like everything can be nowadays).

So....hanging behind me, (RL!!!) on the wall is the above painting I did just before encountering SL.

The quote is very very old and actually relates to Alchemy (which used to be known as The Art), and the words basically mean that perfection has to be sought inside yourself before you go chasing around the globe looking for it. Trying to distil gold from goat poo is not gonna work no matter how long you go at it.

So...the rather 'outsider art' image that goes with it shows the old king (talked about this before in one of my "psychology of virtual existence" posts.... here) being cooked up, in an effort to redeem the Old and morph it into something new.

But...the snake has not taken on the form of the Oruborus (pictured below)




.... symbolising the Increatum , and the man is part animal, part human (I had never seen a neko at this point or he would have had ears too)...so.... the inference is, that without some sort of completion this poor soul might as well throw his paint brushes on the fire.

Now, that's a pretty extreme statement, mine are still packed away in a box, and not one I would honestly recommend.

BUT..... it does really depict my view on art. Art is a process of individuation, and not to be confused with the bi-product, which is the 'artwork', the 'piece'.

I don't really have any strategic plan or ambitions for my bi-products, hence no fear of them being stolen or copied. End of.

Hehehehe....in other news......

Have had a massive shopping spree at Alpha Auer's place, went dancing at Alienspeaking , then turned up for the UWA awards......very well documented here

My Koinup piece was good enough for NWN to link to it, (a feather in my cap) and just before Magoo got returned I had two sims in Search > Showcase > Hot Spots..... all good.

Wizzy again amazed me with her travels to Ancient Archeological Sites.... pictured .. here at the oldest place on the grid... Da Boom, or Great Zero. She likes to sit on things.

...and loved Ravenelle's new images here and here...

Sort of a mixed week really, like a lot of arty types I get a bit of post-natal depression so the blogging has been slack....sorry (not very sorry)... oh, yes, made a new tree...it's in the UWA December Competition.... only place to see it so far. Pop over if you are dying to see it...hehehhhehehee

...and Happy Rezz Day Lalo


:)))

Alienspeaking Sunday and Happy Monday

Well, Sunday, before breakfast, is a great time to hear some of the best music around. This is Casino Hammerer, an alien, laying down some tunes......for the Alienspeaking Nation......... live from Alien HQ.





Jinx....





...and Raintears were dropping it like it's hot.......





.......and I need to get some new dances....anyway.........it normally bodes very well for my week when I can get a sunday alien session in, and this week is no different





I started the week with a new friend, Nur, and went out dancing Monday night too...:)) Happy Monday.


In other news.... I am building my first goat.....and with bits of goat laying around my workshop it looks like Eid ul Fitr (a Muslim festival)....:))
I have the feeling it may turn out to be a sort of Frankenstein goat...but here's hoping.....

..... will also be building Yggdrasil, both (tree and goat) for Frigg Ragu's new project, a snowy sim with trolls caves and thingies ....real Norwegian fairy story stuff.

yes, you'll all be invited.....hmmm...might be time to put my bikini on, I did threaten to...


:)))

Stuff and the University of Delaware

Well, I'm totally Burning Life'd out....so.....although I have a few more things to check out, I'm not gonna be doing much more than kicking back and chilling the next few days, I hope.


ColeMarie has done a great video of my stuff at Magoo and thats on view at Koinup.


I did find the article that LL has been advertising in the NY Times quite amusing, but then I am easily amused (as has been claimed before, and easily bored too)....


So....this Friday will no doubt find me at the University of Delaware, where I have done a Sea Stack with my new tree on top.




...official blurb..."The University of Delaware invites you to join us Friday Oct. 23 2009, 11:30 SLT, for Outsider Art.
This event features a live in-world talk on Outsider Art, Lance Winn, Lance Winn, Associate Professor, Department of Art, University of Delaware.
For an overview of his real life art please visit: http://www.udel.edu/art/winn/ [I did and got bored]

"Outside of What?" will explore issues around both the historic status of "Outsider Art" and how artists working in Second Life conform or deviate from past ideas of what it meant to be outside of the mainstream art world. The talk will attempt to figure out how these definitions were developed in the first place, what the so-called insider "art world" is in our current time, and how we might think of things like self-taught at time when all artists working in the digital realm are essentially learning on their own as new software is continually developing. The discussion will attempt to define and develop the notion of aura as it relates to original experience and to question what this might mean in virtual worlds and will attempt to develop a set of questions concerning the internal versus external world as it relates to both vision and the "visionary."

In addition to the talk there will be an art exhibit spanning both islands from Oct. 23 - Nov.17, 2009.
The exhibit will feature the works of notable Second Life creators including:
AM Radio • Bryn Oh • Cheen Pitney • Cutea Benelli • DC Spensley • Filthy Fluno • Glyph Graves • Kilara Balnarring • Raskolnikow Roffo • Sabrinaa Nightfire • soror Nishi • Ub Yifu • with more to be announced soon!"

well, I know for a fact that Scotsgraymouser is showing too... so we'll see who else....

now......whether or not I can hold out long enough to hear the whole thing will depend on if its all in dodgy voice ...and how comfortable the seats are.
I also have a bit of an allergy to intellectual analysis of art, seems to me things like reading about food, talking about films and intellectualising about art are related in that they are all sofa-time-wasting. However, I am the first to admit when I am wrong, and would love it to be a great evening..... don't hold your breath, tho...

oh yes....the Slurl.... glad I didn't forget that...

:)))